Well, February is here, and usually by this time I'd be complaining about how much training I haven't been doing. This year, however, has been awesome.
I got a new bike...actually an entirely new setup (a custom spec'd 2012 Specialized Tarmac SL4, with Mavic Cosmic Carbones)(pictured with the old stem which has been replaced with a new S-works stem)

I spent a great deal of time staying aerobic throughout November and December, and even half of January. In fact, it wasn't until after attending Hunter Allen's power clinic that I decided to start ramping up the intensity in my workouts. For the past couple weeks, I have added a sprint day to my training week, and I even threw in a day of small climb repeats, using a little course that I put together to train for the Sea Otter Classic circuit race.
The team that we started last year is going well, and a few of the dedicated members have been meeting weekly for some winter training. Hopefully once the weather warms up a bit, we'll see the rest of the crew.
So, I've got my new bike, I've been training well, the only question is whether or not it will pay off. Well, we'll see soon enough. I've registered for an early season "training" race in 2 weeks. In the last one of these series, the fields had over 70 riders each, so it should be action packed. This will also be my first opportunity to use my new GoPro HD in a race. I've been playing around with it, and using a program called "Dashware" to add custom gauges to the video.
My big goal this year is to earn enough points to upgrade from Cat4 to Cat3. To do so, I'm going to try to finish at least in the top 10 at every race. I'm looking forward to the challenge.